Xbox One AMD deal worth over $3 billion

Microsoft didn't give a lot of attention to AMD during the Xbox One reveal last week, but the new console is indeed running an AMD 8-core APU, and Microsoft paid a pretty penny to make that happen. It's said that the deal between AMD and Microsoft to have the new chips in the Xbox One costs the Redmond-based company $3 billion.

Bob Feldstein, who is currently the Vice President of Technology Licensing at NVIDIA who used to work at AMD, mentioned that Microsoft paid $3 billion to AMD for the chips, which is mad money if we say so ourselves. Feldstein stated that he worked as the corporate vice president of business development at AMD, and was in charge of "business management and supply agreement negotiations" regarding the Xbox One, so it seems he had the inside scoop on a lot of information about the new console.

He says that the entire project with Microsoft "is valued at $3+B," and this includes "the coordination of multiple functional teams within AMD, as well as regular customer meetings with leadership teams responsible for handling the challenges of complex, muti-year deals." That seems like a crazy amount of money, but if Microsoft expects to sell a lot of units, perhaps it'll worth it.

Feldstein also noted that he worked with the PlayStation 4 while he was at AMD, but he didn't reveal any numbers on that project. The PS4 uses AMD's new Jaguar processor, and while Microsoft hasn't disclosed what exact chip they're using, it's most likely the Jaguar as well. Nintendo is also using AMD components in their new Wii U console.

He posted the figures on his LinkedIn account, although it's limited to who can see it. Frankly, we're probably guessing that AMD won't be too happy when they find out that Feldstein talked about this information, but it's not like he has anything to lose -- he and other former AMD employees were sued by the company for allegedly stealing company secrets and giving them to NVIDIA.